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Am teacher in Canada. You are naive. Social transition is instant. You’re a girl. You fail a test, you get scolded for it, you say “I’m trans” and suddenly everyone is terrified you’ll kill yourself and the test is forgotten. All you have to change is your name. Your clothes, behaviour, love of manly stuff like anime and fan fiction all remain unchanged, only now you don’t have to do any work at school because of your “mental health.” The other girls trip over themselves to affirm your new identity, and you all hug and giggle together in the cafeteria. If a social worker or counsellor is in on this, they will insist that your identity must be affirmed and your (in most cases, single) mother, aiming to literally save your life (because, suicide) will take you to the doctor to begin treatment. You dare not refuse, because you told everyone this was Not Just A Phase.
You can overdo it and say you’re a demon or something, but if you stick to the script and go to the right places, you can be well on your way to embodying the masculine ideal (5”2’ , blue hair, with a hint of a moustache) in a few weeks.
I don't live in Canada, I'm in the UK, but I've got to say the world you have described sounds fucking alien to me. I live in a very blue-tribe sort of sphere, but people who say that being trans has become 'cool' feel like they're on a different planet to me. Not sure how to resolve this really; I'm left thinking, if I, a very left-leaning person, have 0 experience with 'trans-trending', where are these trenders?
I mean, being trans sounds like a fucking nightmare to me.
They trenders are 16. If you don’t hang around teenagers you won’t meet them.
It’s probably a nightmare if you really are trans. What is crystal clear, though, is that almost none of the kids who say they are, actually are. That’s why it’s all girls. If a guy is trans he has to bear a lot of costs: get new clothes, look weird, change his voice, etc. A girl can change nothing, not even her clothes, (changing your name is really something you make everyone else change)and everyone will cheer-lead her bravery, and fall in line to affirm her new name and identity. The costs are borne by everyone else. It’s a cost-free power move, so it’s not surprising that kids are drawn to it.
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Wait what? In my perception this was always a girly thing.
I meant that these "trans" kids have zero masculine qualities. Nowadays, there's nothing girlier than saying you're a boy. One of them skipped my class, and when asked where they had been, replied "Home Depot." I felt bad, because I had judged this kid to be most unconvincing. But Home Depot? Perhaps I had been blinded by bias. "What did you buy there?," I asked. The reply? "This potted pansy! It's gardening day!"
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I think so too. Calling it "manly" feels like sarcasm to me - that the standard for counting as a trans boy is so low, no one cares if the hypothetical girl shows interest in any manly interest.
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As an older millennial I can only marvel, not without a little jealousy, at the brave new world we live in. Wow.
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